Improvement in harvesters



.artnr union.

GEORGE H; sPAULDITNG, `on ROOK-FORD, ILLINOIS,

ynuPacmanEnr IN HARVESTERS.

Specification form-ing l.part'vof LettersA Patent No.ll40,%'3, dated July 8,17873; application led November 6,1872. I

l'To alL-vhomjt may concern.- l

of Rockford, inthe county oi Winnebago and State of lllinoisyhave. invented certain new .and useful ,Improvements in Harvesters; and" I do hereby declare the following to be a full andexact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawingsV forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1"is a plan viewof themachine; Fig. 2, an 'elevation of its front side; Fig. 3,

an elevation of the binder end of the machine;

l the cutter-bar.

Similarletters of reference in the accompa-` nying denote the same parts. d

This invention belongs to that class of harresters which are drawn by one horse, the driver of which is alsothe binder of the grain. The invention has for its object to improve the construction of vmachines of this vclass so as, rst, to. prevent' the heads .of the straw from traveling faster along the back side 'of the'horizontal apron that conveys it tothe elevator than the butts travel along the front side; second,'toafford aclear space for the passage of those ends of the straw that project beyond the elevator, and at the 'same time to .prevent the straw from falling backwardwhile Vbeing carried upward by the elevator; third, to allow the machine to be raised or lowered without slacke'niu g or tightening the band that drives the elevator;

fourth, to enable the driver 'to conveniently stand facing the horse, manage 'with his foot the apparatus by which the horse isguided,

and discharge Vthe gavels with vhis hands. To

these ends the invention consists, first, in a serrated extension-board placed at the rear' side of the horizontal apron which first re-l ceives the cut grain, on which board the heads of the straw fall, and by which they are prevented froin traveling faster than the stubble ends; second, ina pressfboard' supportedl at' its front sideby means of an arm extending from the front end ofthe elevator-frame around in front of it, said press-board having, also, serrations in its inner side next the elevator; third, in the arrangement of a wheel which Y `Be it known that I, GEORGE HSPLULDING;

at once transports the elevator-'frame L and drives aAband-wheel, and is itself mounted in alever,'with the elevator-.shaft operated by the band, rand with tension-wheels applied to the-band; fourth, in a vibratory shaft having a head piece to fasten the reins -to,'and a foot piece by means ofwhich the driver can op,` erate the shaft; all which I will no w proceed to describe.

- In the drawing,lAis the extension-board,

thesame being attached'by screws passing through slots c inthe board into the backbar of the apron-frame IB..` `T he board- A has a row of serrations, b, along its front edge. It is well known that the heads of grain tend to travelfaster on the apron .than the stubble ends, the consequence of which Vtendency is that thc straw presents itself to the binder diagonally, and has, therefore, to bestraightcned before, beingl bound. The function of the serrations bis to obvate this tendency' by obstructing the motion of the heads, and thus to cause the grain to `present itself straight to the binder. C is the canvas apron running over rollers yplaced one'at each end of the frame B. vThe straw is taken off from vthe apron C by an elevator consisting of a series .of inclined bands, c, armed with teeth d, and

running'over a lower roller, D, mounted .in the'frame B, and an upper roller, E, mounted at the top of a frame, F. In front of this frame is afloat or press-board, consisting of a'seriesof parallel bars; e, bound together by top andbottom ,cross-boards' h. This device answers the ordinary purpose of press-boards, viz., -to press the straw as it is carried upward on the teeth of the elevating-bands. VIii narrow machines like this one, where the straw is long, the heads pften extend beyond the rear side of the-frame, and' l it is therefore important tothe proper formation of the gavels that these projecting ends should -beas clear-of impediment in their progress as is that partkof the straw which does notproject.

Accordingly the press-board is hung to a sickle-shaped arm, G, whose butt Vis fastened to the front end of the frame F, and which extends `around in front of the press-board.

Links i, whose upper ends are jointed to the arm G, and whose lower ends 4to thevbottom cross-board h, serve to suspend the pressboard to the arm. As the stubble ends of the straw do not project beyond the frame F, the arm G does not stand in their way, and bylts location it is removed from any possibility of standing in the way of the projecting heads of the grain at the other end ofthe frame. The inner face of the bars e are notched 1 n order to keep the straw, when in a mass thiclier than the length of the teeth d, from falling down the' elevator, as it would otherwise be liable to do when the machine passes over rough ground,.the pressboard being necessarily hung loosely. The transporting-wheel H is mounted on a lever, I, the front end of which is jointed to the front end of the frame F. On the shaft of the transporting-,wheel at the other side of the lever I is placed a band-wheel, J, from which the band Kv runs forward to tension-wheels k' mounted on a bar attached to the front end of the frame F. Passing around the tension-wheels, the band runs u'p to a sheave, l, placed on the front end of the shaft of the upper elevator-roller E.

By raising or lowering the rear end of the lever I the'frame F is lowered or raised,as may be required, and this without tightening or slackening the band K, the distance of the band-wheel J from k, the center ofmoton, being neither increased nor diminished during any movement of the frame F.

On the shaft of the upper rollerE is secured an eccentric, l', the strap m of which is fastened to the upper cnd of a pitman, n, the lower end of which is jointed to the upper end of an elbow-lever, o, whose lower end is jointed to' the sicklebar p. Hence the sickle-bar is mediately reciprocated by the rotation of the roller E. The lower roller is drivenby the bands c, and is itself the -motor of the apron C, being connected with the nearest roller thereof by a belt, q.

It will be observed that the spaces between the bars c form continuous slots lengthwise of the press-board.- In these slots run the indel pendent bands c of the elevator, the'bars e serving to hinder the teeth d from turning over sidewise, and running under the grain without carrying it up.

The grain is discharged by the elevator into the receiver L, and there bound. The outer edge of the receiver is made slantin g inward from front to rear. This inclination of the receiver L enables the binder, who is also the driver, to stand partly facing the horse, and in a convenient position for observing it. At the same time the width of the table to the left of the binder is diminished so that he can. discharge the gavels from the machinewith greater case than as though the table were not inclined.

In the front end of the platform N a vertical shaft, 0., is loosely stepped, so that it can vi brate, and to the bottom of this shaft a piece, I), is attached, by means of which the driver can vibrate the shaft with his foot.l To the head of the shaft a cross-piece, R, is secured, which has eyesr, to which the reins' are to be fastened. Hence, by vibrating the shaft with his'fo'ot, the'binder can guide the horse without using his lhands at all. A bar, T, is pivoted at one end to a lug, s, springing from the lever I just over the axle of the transportingwheel.; This bar passes forward past the upright part-of the frame F, intowhichextcnds a screw occupying a slot in the bar. To vthe front end of the bar T a cross-bar, t,1is attached, and to the ends of the cross-bar t the thills V are fastened. The rear ends of the thillsare connected by plates e with the bar T in rear of the cross-bar t.

By removing the screws that connectthe thills with the crossbar the thills can be drawn forward, turning the plates forward against the bar T, and bringing the points of the thills together, as shown in Fig. 4, thus forming a tongue. Hence this machine can be adapted to be drawn by a pair of horses as wellas by a single horse.

What I claim as new is- 1. A serrated extension board, placed at the rear of the horizontal apron, and designedto prevent the heads of the straw from traveling faster than the stubble-ends, substantially as described.

2. The press-board e h, hung to the arm G, and attached only to the front side of the machine, in the manner described, and for the purpose of preventing the projecting heads of of the straw from being obstructed while being elevated.

3. The press-board c h, serrated on its inner face for the purpose of preventing straw from falling while ascending the elevator, substantially as described.

4. The combination of the elevator-frame with the lever I, transporting-wheel H, bandwheelJ, band K, tension-pulleysk, and elevator-roller E, arranged as described, for the purpose of raising and lowering the machine without slackening the band.

5. The vertical shaft 0, having a foot-piece, P, and head-piece It, for the purpose of enabling the binder to guide the horse with his foot, substantially as specified.

GEO. H. SPAULDIN G.

Witnesses JOHN M. WALDEY, AUGUST KAUFFMAN. 

